Salon.com > Dieter Bednarz

Leaked intel: Iran’s secret bomb plans

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:26:00 +0000

It was probably the last attempt to defuse the nuclear dispute with Tehran without having to turn to dramatic new sanctions or military action. The plan, devised at the White House in October, had Russian and Chinese support and came with the seal of approval of the US president. It was clearly a Barack Obama operation.

Under the plan, Iran would send a large share of its low enriched uranium abroad, all at once, for a period of one year, receiving internationally monitored quantities of nuclear fuel elements in return. It was a deal that provided benefits for all sides. The Iranians would have enough material for what they claim is their civilian nuclear program, as well as for scientific experiments, and the world could be assured that Tehran would not be left with enough fissile material for its secret domestic uranium enrichment program -- and for what the West assumes is the building of a nuclear bomb.

Tehran's leaders initially agreed to the proposal "in principle." But for weeks they put off the international community with vague allusions to a "final response," and when that response finally materialized, it came in the form of a "counter-proposal." Under this proposal, Tehran insisted that the exchange could not take place all at once, but only in stages, and that the material would not be sent abroad. Instead, Tehran wanted the exchange to take place in Iran.

Iran’s nuke negotiator: “We have nothing to hide”

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:25:00 +0000

Ambassador Soltanieh, last Wednesday, your government announced that it would not transfer the enriched uranium stored at the nuclear facility in Natanz abroad so that it can be further refined there. In doing so, Iran backed out of an agreement that it had made at the nuclear talks held in Geneva in early October. Is this Tehran's idea of building confidence?

I'm not sure how you arrived at this interpretation of the negotiations in Geneva. There, we stated that our research reactor in Tehran needed uranium that was 20 percent enriched in order to produce radioactive isotopes that could be used, for example, for radiation therapy in hospitals. We wanted to negotiate the concrete course of action in additional talks, and we still want that. But that's up to the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] in Vienna, where I am the head of our delegation. We urgently need fresh supplies for our reactor -- 200 hospitals are depending on it.

Turkey is trying to hammer out a compromise and is offering to store the uranium for Iran. But Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki says that the leadership in Tehran is insisting that the uranium be exchanged for fuel within Iran.

Iran has no interest in compromise

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:31:00 +0000

Three months after the disputed presidential election, Iran's leadership is more confident than ever. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has provoked the West at the U.N. General Assembly, while at home the opposition continues to be brutally repressed. There is little hope of progress at the negotiations that begin in Switzerland on Thursday.

Parvin Fahimi will be out there on the front line again, risking life and limb. She'll continue to take up her protest signs and shout "Down with the dictatorship!" as she did most recently on Iran's "Jerusalem Day" last Friday. Fahimi, 53, is a strong personality, a leader of street protests and an icon of the Iranian opposition against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime.

"I'm also just a normal housewife," she says, readjusting her black chador inside her apartment in the middle-class Tehran neighborhood of Apadana. "But in my homeland, if you want justice and freedom, you have to put everything else on hold."

Fahimi's apartment is a shrine, a memorial to her murdered son, Sohrab Aarabi. Dozens of photos of Sohrab line the walls, as if to make sure the memory of her beloved youngest son will never fade. There's Sohrab serious over his schoolbooks, Sohrab energetic on the soccer field, Sohrab looking pensive during a break at school. Sohrab, who had so many plans, who wanted to discover the world and experience first love. Sohrab, who became a martyr -- against his will.

Iran’s growing societal chasm

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:16:00 +0000

The success of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was never predicated on his authority as a religious scholar. There are a number of Shiite clerics who are superior to him in the pecking order. Charisma is also not a characteristic frequently associated with Iran's religious leader.

Rather, Khamenei's power stems largely from his skills as a strategist. Since his election as the almost untouchable leader of the Islamic republic in 1989, Khamenei has proven remarkably adept at courting his political opponents, thereby avoiding open conflict. Few pursued consensus as arduously as Khamenei.

In recent years, however, as this consensus has become more virtual than real, the position of Iran's leader has been eroded. Indeed, the current street battles are symptomatic of that erosion. Tears in the country's religious establishment have become ever more visible in Iran's recent past, the gap between the country's rich and poor has widened, and the chasm between the Western-oriented youth and the religious fanatics has deepened. Indeed, the current crisis could very well spell the beginning of the end for the Khamenei system.

Even more ominous

“The world has ignored our warnings”

Wed, 20 May 2009 10:20:00 +0000

Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), discusses the record of his term in office, his bitter struggle with the Bush administration and the dangers that new nuclear powers pose.

Mr. ElBaradei, you have been the director general of the IAEA for more than 11 years, and you plan to retire in November, at the end of your third term.

There can be no question of retirement. The nuclear threat is too great for me to be able to put this issue to rest. I will continue to play an active role.

When you took office, you wanted to make the world a safer place; but now the threat seems greater than ever. Nuclear weapons could fall into the hands of the Taliban in Pakistan. North Korea has announced plans to test another nuclear weapon. And, in Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad boasts about being able to close the nuclear cycle. Have you failed?

No, I don't think so. We did what we could. We at the IAEA are merely a tool as strong as our member states allow us to be. We cannot make political decisions; nor are we in a position to implement them. We cannot simply march into any country without its consent. It was others who failed.

“But think of the things that were done to Iranians!”

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 10:19:00 +0000

Mr. President, so far you have traveled to the United States four times to attend the General Assembly of the United Nations. What is your impression of America and the Americans?

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate, I am pleased to be able to welcome you to Tehran once again, after our extensive conversation almost three years ago. Now on the USA: Of course, one cannot get to know a country like the United States in short visits, but my speech and the discussions at Columbia University were very special to me. I am quite aware that a distinction must be drawn between the American government and the American people. We do not hold Americans accountable for the faulty decisions of the Bush administration. They want to live in peace, like we all do.

The new U.S. president, Barack Obama, directed a video address to the Iranian nation three weeks ago, during the Iranian New Year festival. Did you watch the speech?

Yes. Great things are happening in the United States. I believe that the Americans are in the process of initiating important developments.

How did you feel about the speech?

Americans in Green Zone under siege

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:00:00 +0000

Sarah is not the type of woman who loses her cool very easily. As an employee of the U.S. State Department, she has seen too much for that. Her superiors in Washington have repeatedly sent her to the world's hot spots. Now Sarah works as a "special agent" in the personal protection unit of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, where she is responsible for the security of high-ranking guests.

Since Tuesday, it has been Sarah's job to look after German politician Elke Hoff. And, since Wednesday afternoon, Sarah has occasionally had to address her charge -- "Sorry about that, ma'am!" -- more forcefully than usual: "Hurry up! We have to duck and cover."

Sarah already has helmets and bulletproof vests at the ready when she and her security team urge a small delegation of members of the German parliament, the Bundestag, to board an armored personnel carrier. The sound of incoming rockets and grenades isn't long in coming.

“We don’t want to confirm or deny the Holocaust”

Tue, 30 May 2006 20:06:00 +0000

Spiegel: Mr. President, you are a soccer fan and you like to play soccer. Will you be sitting in the stadium in Nuremberg on June 11, when the Iranian national team plays against Mexico in Germany?

Ahmadinejad: It depends. Naturally, I'll be watching the game in any case. I don't know yet whether I'll be at home in front of the television set or somewhere else. My decision depends upon a number of things.

Spiegel: For example?

Ahmadinejad: How much time I have, how the state of various relationships are going, whether I feel like it and a number of other things.

Spiegel: There was great indignation in Germany when it became known that you might be coming to the soccer world championship. Did that surprise you?

Ahmadinejad: No, that's not important. I didn't even understand how that came about. It also had no meaning for me. I don't know what all the excitement is about.

Spiegel: It concerned your remarks about the Holocaust. It was inevitable that the Iranian president's denial of the systematic murder of the Jews by the Germans would trigger outrage.

Ahmadinejad: I don't exactly understand the connection.

Fear and loathing in Iraq

Tue, 06 Dec 2005 11:00:00 +0000

The road to Baghdad's airport, long considered the city's most notorious deathtrap, is flanked by the two neighborhoods Jihad and Amiriya. They have never been considered as exclusive as the area along the banks of the Tigris River, where the cronies of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein once lived. But the districts were nevertheless refuges for members of the Iraqi middle class, who lived there in small villas from the 1970s. At a comfortable distance from the perilous center of power, there were plenty of green spaces, shops, ice cream parlors, schools, parks and mosques. Life was pleasant in Jihad and Amiriya.

But anyone returning to the two neighborhoods these days will have difficulty recognizing the western sections of the Iraqi capital. Within half an hour after sundown, the streets are pitch-black in an area where there is no electricity, and where the only houses with lights are those with rattling, fume-belching generators in their front yards. In the old days, Baghdad's streets came alive at night, but nowadays the day comes to an end by early evening. No one dares set foot outside, since taking a walk means gambling with one's life. Shots can be heard every night, and every morning more people are dead.